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La Vie En Rose (2007)
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Reviews Counted:142
Fresh:105
Rotten:37
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: The set design and cinematography are impressive, but the real achievement of La Vie en Rose is Marion Cotillard's mesmerizing, wholly convincing performance as Edith Pilaf.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for substance abuse, sexual content, brief nudity, language and thematic elements.
Runtime: 2 hrs 21 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release:22-06-2007
Synopsis: According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf's voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to... According to Marlene Dietrich, chanteuse Edith Piaf's voice was "the soul of Paris." This French drama explores the often troubled life of the singer as her fame took her from the City of Lights to America to the South of France. Abandoned by her mother, Piaf grew up in her grandmother's brothel and her father's circus, which is hardly the fun one might imagine. While singing on the streets of Paris as a teen, Piaf (played as an adult by Marion Cotillard, A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT) is discovered by club owner Louis Leplée (Gérard Depardieu), and this chance encounter changes the woman's life. Her powerful voice takes her all over the globe, but it can't guard her from the pain and suffering she can't avoid. As Piaf, Cotillard is mesmerizing. She fully inhabits the singer's ivory skin, crafting a character that never descends into caricature or camp. She lip syncs to Piaf's legendary voice, but the performance is seamless. Like WALK THE LINE and RAY, this biopic creates a fascinating picture of an artist whose songs only begin to reflect the singer's painful life. But director-writer Olivier Dahan (LA VIE PROMISE) doesn't take the traditional biopic route with LA VIE EN ROSE. Instead, the film jumps between various moments in the singer's life, with little concern for linear narrative. Cotillard is just as adept at playing the teenage Piaf as she is the songbird on her deathbed at the age of 47, and it's her amazing performance that makes LA VIE EN ROSE worth seeing. [More]
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Gerard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Gerard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Clotilde Courau, Jean Paul Rouve, Marc Barbe, Catherine Allégret, Manon Chevallier, Pauline Burlet, Elisabeth Commelin, Marc Gannot
Director: Oliver Dahan
Director: Oliver Dahan
Screenwriter: Olivier Dahan
Producer: Alain Goldman
Composer: Christopher Gunning
Studio: Picturehouse
Reviews for La Vie En Rose
It’s early for Oscar baiting but Marion Cotillard’s performance as Édith Piaf in La Vie En Rose puts itself on the hook.
I had goosebumps from the very first moment, when Marion Cotillard's Piaf stands centre stage in New York in 1959, singing from her soul. It's an extraordinary performance from an almost unrecognisable Cotillard
Marion Cotillard tears up all the available scenery in this overblown, achronological biopic of French pop singer Edith Piaf.
...this is a remarkably evenhanded, unflatteringly honest depiction of the singer and her devastating last days, played magnificently by virtual unknown Marion Cotillard.
La Vie is a movie so frantic to get to it all that nothing is more than touched on.
Marion Cotillard invests the role with so many tics, exaggerated hand gestures and eye-rolls that it seems she is possessed by the ghost of Geraldine Page.
Marion Cotillard is fantastic. It is the best sync singing, including body language, since Larry Parks in 'The Jolson Story.'
There's no arguing the excellence of the performance at the center of this ambitious and erratic biopic about French singing sensation Edith Piaf.
The film does get a little overwhelmingly dark. This may be an accurate picture of what Piaf's life was like, but watching nearly 2 1/2 hours of it is a bit much.
The constant that makes La Vie en Rose so compelling is Cotillard's dynamic portrayal of Piaf.
I got a familiar gut feeling: There is this year's Oscar-winning best-actress performance.
Piaf's spirit, those evocative songs and Cotillard's impressive work make it compelling. It's not an ideal film, but it has the virtue of the ideal star, and that counts.
The saucer-eyed Cotillard is convincing and astonishing, and she anchors a film that is less show-biz formulaic and more intriguing than its recent American counterparts, 'Walk the Line' and 'Ray.'
La Vie en Rose provides a tantalizing introduction to the tiny dynamo that was Edith Piaf but it's far from being a definitive or enlightening portrait of the famous singer.
It is Marion Cotillard that makes this movie an unforgettable experience.
A hugely entertaining biography of Edith Piaf, featuring a staggering performance by Marion Cotillard.
Filmmaker Olivier Dahan has created many scenes that are quite simply astonishing, and occasionally magical.
This kind of heightened drama might not work in most movies, but it suits its larger-than-life subject: Dahan's La Vie is the movie equivalent of a torch song.
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